Creator David Wise is bringing Fight Back, an immersive theatrical experience, to the Gay and Lesbian Community Center for a one-night-only event on March 19 at 7 PM.
The premise of this theatrical experiment is simple: It’s the March 13, 1989 meeting of ACT UP New York, the passionate group taking direct action to fight AIDS. But – there are no actors and there’s no audience— there are participants, who, from the minute they arrive, are a person attending the meeting. Fight Back explores whether there is something additional we can experience by attempting to inhabit the people who were actually there. Through trying to feel what they felt — by having our bodies enact their actions — can we come closer to experiencing what they experienced?
Participants get a biographical profile of their persona and instructions for how to engage. Some (self-selected) people will also get details about specialized roles they’ll have at the meeting. Every persona will be an actual person who was at that meeting. When participants register for Fight Back, they will fill out a brief questionnaire so that they get matched with a persona that suits them.
The goal of Fight Back is to try to experience the complicated, life-changing emotions that the people at an ACT UP meeting in 1989 felt. For many ACT UPers, the weekly Monday night general meetings were central to their experience in ACT UP. Through these meetings, ACT UPers came to understand that their lives had worth — contrary to what they were being told by their families, their communities, and their government.
For more information and to sign up, please visit fightback.nyc . A $19.89 donation is required for all participants.
Gay and Lesbian Community Center is located at 208 W 13th St., NYC
